Here’s Who BYU Basketball Will Face To Open WCC Tournament Run
Mar 3, 2022, 11:03 PM
BYU plays Loyola Marymount during an NCAA basketball game against Loyola Marymount at the Marriott Center in Provo on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. (Mengshin Lin, Deseret News)
(Mengshin Lin, Deseret News)
LAS VEGAS – BYU basketball will have an opponent on Friday night that they’ve grown familiar with the past few weeks. Loyola Marymount will be BYU’s first opposition in their quest for a WCC Tournament title (7 p.m., BYUtv & KSL NewsRadio).
Provo, UT 👉 Las Vegas, NV pic.twitter.com/dinaglDZg8
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) March 4, 2022
The Lions defeated Pacific, 86-66 in the opening round of the league tournament on Thursday night. Friday’s second-round meeting will mark the third time BYU and LMU have squared off in the last 22 days.
BYU Basketball draws LMU
BYU (21-9, 9-6 WCC) won both meetings against the Lions. The first matchup this season on February 10 saw LMU hold a 17-point lead over BYU, but the Cougars stormed back in short order to pull off an 83-82 victory in overtime ultimately.
The Lions Advance 😎@lmulionsMBB | UCU #WCChoops Tournament pic.twitter.com/Thl5fTpIjG
— WCC Basketball (@WCChoops) March 4, 2022
BYU cruised to a 20-point victory in Provo on February 24. Now comes the neutral court matchup in Las Vegas, where Mark Pope-led BYU teams are 1-2 overall in WCC Tournaments since Pope took over as head coach.
It’s “Do-or-Die”
In this matchup, all eyes will be on BYU as the Cougars look to enhance its NCAA Tournament at-large case. A loss would be catastrophic; a win would set the stage for BYU to have a Quad 1 opportunity against San Francisco on Saturday in the Quarterfinals.
“It’s do-or-die. You finally get to a point where you win or go home, right,” said BYU coach Mark Pope. “Like postseason in every sport; the win or go home deal is really fun and it’s where you make your mark, it’s where you’re remembered forever.”
BYU comes into the WCC Tournament with some momentum as they’ve won four of their last five games, with the lone loss coming on the road in a competitive five-point setback on the road to Saint Mary’s.
First Team All-WCC performer Alex Barcello is the leader for BYU. Barcello has proven himself to be one of the nation’s best shooters, despite being faced with double teams on a nightly basis. If Barcello gets some space, look for him to have a big night offensively. But ideally, for Barcello, his supporting cast has a performance as they did in the last meeting with LMU.
Will BYU’s supporting cast step up again?
In the February 24 meeting, four of BYU’s five starters scored in double-figures. The only one that didn’t was Barcello. If this BYU basketball team gets contributions like that again from Caleb Lohner Gideon George, it makes BYU one of the toughest outs in this deeper-than-usual WCC Tourney.
This will be the first postseason opportunity for BYU’s young star in the frontcourt in freshman Fousseyni Traore. The Mali native was named an All-WCC Freshman Team selection this week, and it was well-deserved as he piled up four WCC Freshman of the Week honors in a conference that features the nation’s top diaper dandy in Chet Holmgren from Gonzaga.
Traore and the BYU bigs might not have to face LMU’s best frontcourt player in Keli Leaupepe. The man with college basketball’s best mullet didn’t play in Thursday night’s win over Pacific. It was the third consecutive game he was sidelined due to an undisclosed injury.
BYU has an injury of their own that continues to be a “day-to-day” situation in starting forward Seneca Knight. Knight didn’t practice on Tuesday. If he’s not able to go, expect a starting lineup from BYU that would include Barcello, Lucas, George, Lohner, and Traore.
You can listen to BYU’s run in the WCC Tournament on the legacy home of the Cougars, KSL NewsRadio (102.7 FM and 1160 AM).
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
